Arthur Andersen Consulting Partners

The Arthur Andersen Consulting Partners were not a single individual, but rather a powerful, highly specialized coalition of technology and management consultants nested within the broader Arthur Andersen accounting firm. Their collective background in large-scale technological implementation, IT systems design, and enterprise-level operational efficiency allowed them to build a highly lucrative consulting practice that eventually dwarfed the firm's legacy auditing business, providing the financial leverage required to break away and form Accenture.

Accenture's origins do not trace back to a plucky entrepreneur, but rather to the sprawling, regulated world of 20th-century public accounting. The firm that would become Accenture originally began in 1913 as the business and technology consulting division of Arthur Andersen, one of the well-known 'Big Eight' accounting firms in the United States. In 1953, Arthur Andersen was asked by General Electric to automate payroll processing at a major appliance facility in Kentucky. The project culminated in the installation of an UNIVAC I computer and printer which is widely considered the first commercial computer application in corporate America. This success established Arthur Andersen as the pioneer of corporate technology consulting. However, the 'founding' of Accenture as an independent entity was born out of intense, bitter corporate warfare. By the 1980s, the technology consulting wing (known as Andersen Consulting) was generating more revenue and profit than the traditional audit and tax partners. The consultants grew resentful that they were forced to share their outsized profits with the slower-growing accounting side of the house. Furthermore, the consultants felt constrained by strict regulations that prevented Arthur Andersen from consulting for clients it was actively auditing. This tension erupted into an internal civil war in 1989, culminating in a bitter, decade-long arbitration process. In 2000, an arbitrator finally granted Andersen Consulting total independence, but stipulated they had to surrender the prestigious 'Andersen' name and pay a $1 billion separation fee. Forced to rebrand entirely, the newly independent firm adopted the name 'Accenture' (a portmanteau of 'Accent on the future') on January 1, 2001. The timing of this hostile split proved fortuitous: one year later, Arthur Andersen was entirely destroyed in the horrific Enron accounting scandal. Having severed ties just in time, Accenture executed its IPO in 2001 and went on to become the global heavyweight of IT consulting.